The Last Bandit
by mooty
Summary: Jon wields the dagger for the last time, sinking to the ground in his last ever battle. He recalls what had happened, and realizes that he is the Last Bandit
1. Dagger and Claw

**The Last Bandit**

**The Usual Disclaimers**

I do not own Maplestory. In fact I'm rather noob and this is my first fanfic! I just like Maple and recently created this bandit-bound rogue. Sorry if the chapters are too long or short, as I have said I'm really a fanfic newbie and please advise me!

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**Chapter 1: Claw and Dagger**

The Dark Lord summoned the two scrawny boys into his personal tavern, and tutted as they rejected the two glasses of beer on the table. But the deal was smooth. Afterall, Jon's parents were friends to the Dark Lord, and seasoned Hermits themselves, except that they were currently running around in Ossyria doing some Protection of Ossyria assignment, having fun with Lycanthropes. Jon looked at the trendy clothes hung behind the Dark Lord which would be given to new rogues, trying to hide his excitement.

His friend, Gordon, was calm and steady as usual. That guy was bigger than Jon, and always in control, from when Jon was mobbed by particularly unfriendly Red Snails (Jon had moaned when he got snail slime on his pants), to when they lost their way near Sunset Sky. Gordon knew the way, and he treated his promotion to an official Rogue like it happened everyday.

Then the weapon ceremony. Jon had watched this happen many times before. The Dark Lord held out two weapons for everyone – a claw or a dagger. Gordon chose first, and had no doubts – he was already shoving his hand into a slightly rusted garnier. Jon was proud of the fact that he never 'copied' anyone, and chose the equally rusted fruit knife from the Dark Lord's other hand. The Dark Lord glanced at Jon briefly, as though to thank Jon for helping get rid of one dagger – there had been an upsurge of budding assassins in the past few years.

As they left the pub, Jon knew his parents would not be happy. They would have been expecting a garnier fixed firmly on Jon's hand, not some 'dumb weak dagger', as they saw it. But it was Jon's desire to become a bandit, ever since a mystery man wearing a highly advanced outfit had saved him from a mob of orange mushrooms using a move that Jon later found out was Savage Blow. Even Gordon didn't know of that incident. Jon knew Gordon was a staunch believer of the claw.

Gordon was grinning profusely as he followed Jon out of the pub. "Let's go train! Not that I know how to handle a claw properly yet, of course" – Jon knew that was a lie, he had seen Gordon burying his head in a 'Handling a Claw for Dummies' book the previous day – "but we might just fool around with some slimes!"

As though the monsters heard Gordon, a gigantic blob with a greenish pigment appeared out of nowhere. Feeling a surge of adrenalin, Jon rushed forward to sink his wonderful dagger into the monster but when he was two metres away the slime sank into the ground. There were two Subi throwing stars embedded in it.

Jon turned back and stared. Gordon grinned, embarrassed. "The Dark Lord taught me a few tricks about Lucky Seven, you see."

**--**

Jon had one-on-ones with the Dark Lord every Thursdays, not because he was especially good or lousy, but simply because he was the only thief from his batch using a dagger.

"Faster, m'boy!" boomed his mentor, who had boyish features not much older than Jon's. "You can't expect to learn Double Stab unless you do it fast!" the Dark Lord sank his zamadar into the slime, which exploded immediately. There were three dagger marks in it.

Meanwhile, Jon could see who was much better than him in the other class. Gordon had nearly perfected his Lucky Seven, and was practicing with the older pupils, attracting the attention of some female rogues. Gordon ignored all of them with shy smiles all the time, and did not stop his practices.

After a few months, though, a new female rogue joined the class. Jon, who had made it a habit to watch the assassin lessons, fell in love straightaway. Her name, he found out, was Kim, and she was threatening to be as good as Gordon, even though she was one year younger than him. Gordon did not seem to be attracted by Kim or any other girls, but Kim (Jon noticed with dismay) kept looking at the now-muscled Gordon from the corner of her eye, along with the other girls.

Jon's parents, meanwhile, had become more distant from him ever since they came back to Victoria and noticed Jon practicing on snails with his fruit knife. His father had taken him into the room and lectured him. "Don't you understand why everyone else is becoming assassins? The most important thing to a rogue is RANGE. Besides, we as Hermits have experienced smooth lives and have outclassed those Bandits even though they trained much harder than us!"

"But… Chief Bandits have a great time with the meso… the meso-whatever skills!" Jon remembered himself saying.

His father placed his head in his hands. "Jon, you must understand your limits. Maybe Gordon or your other friends have inspired you with dreams that you people will make it to the end as seasoned Hermits or Bandits. But unlike Gordon, who is talented, we have seen your weaknesses. Your inability to handle even small snail mobs. Your fear for the smallest slimes and mushrooms. We just know you are not cut out to be a hardcore bandit. Just become an assassin, you don't even have to become a hermit if you're not cut out to become one. At least when you become an assassin, you can hunt from range. Daggers are a thing of the past." Jon's father took out from his bag a brand new shiny garnier, and placed it on Jon's bed, before walking away.

Jon thought about not being the odd-one-out dagger rogue anymore. About being able to train with Gordon, Kim and his other friends. He picked up the garnier and tried wearing it. It felt nice.

**--**

Is this a good start? How to continue? Suggest in a review thanks!


	2. Competition

**The Last Bandit**

**The Usual Disclaimers**

I do not own Maplestory. In fact I'm rather noob and this is my first fanfic! I just like Maple and recently created this bandit-bound rogue. Sorry if the chapters are too long or short, as I have said I'm really a fanfic newbie and please advise me!

Sorry for this very late installment! Thanks for those people who reviewed and mailed me.

**Chapter 2: Competition**

The Dark Lord was slightly displeased when Jon mentioned his desire for change of class. "You have to start small, even though I know you want to train with Gordon and the others in the advanced class." Jon nodded his head. He was aware, and prepared for facing and training with the little kids. Sooner or later he would get to join his friends… and Kim.

Meanwhile, the advanced class will take part in a hunting competition, the winner getting a brand new set of Wolbi. Even though everyone in the big class of 30 students would take part, it was obvious that either Gordon or Kim would end up with the Wolbi. They were so advanced, yet compared to each other, neither was comprehensively better.

For one thing, they were already wearing different equipment from the others. While the others were content with steel titans, a change from garniers, the duo had been given bronze igors to train with from the Dark Lord. As Jon noted, even some adults still used igors. Just as a judoka changes his belt to indicate rank, the two of them were already starting to wear slightly more mature paos and qipaos.

The day came. Jon resigned himself to sitting on the grass outside Ellinia as the competition started. "I repeat myself!" shouted the Dark Lord. "The rules are simple: hunt the Green Mushrooms until you find a special gem I have hidden inside one!"

Jon wished Gordon luck, but he had already dashed into the forest. Gordon was just too driven, too wanting to win. Jon knew that Gordon was poor and came from a family of failed weapon shop-owners, and he couldn't afford Wolbi or any other kind of stars. That's why he wanted to win it that much.

Half an hour had passed. Two-thirds of the competitors, smiling as though they took the competition lightly, walked out of the forest to join the others from the lower classes on the grass, some of them with injuries. They had quit. Of course, they were from rich families and could easily afford Kumbis or even Steelies, who cared about a dumb Wolbi over their own life?

Suddenly, Jon heard a shrill shriek. Kim! The authorized clerics of the competition immediately teleported into the forest to find her. Jon found himself profusely worried. What had happened? He ran off into the forest, despite the Dark Lord's warnings that he was 'too weak to handle the strong green mushrooms that had given even the advanced students some problems'.

The Dark Lord sighed, exasperated. Jon had left his garnier behind.

"Goddamnit!" Jon thought how what his parents would say at his language, but he was beyond caring. Kim let off another shriek and Jon heard a sound of something getting torn, and he felt his heart sinking horribly. _God, no – _

The sound was suddenly compounded a million times. Kim was right in front of him, her clothes tattered. A dark axe stump. It looked exactly like an axe stump, which Jon had briefly encountered once, except that the bark around it was rotting away and had turned a malevolent black. Its axe drove into Kim, who for some reason could not run properly, as she was petrified even by the slimes and trees that surrounded here, and she was muttering gibberish.

Jon took out his claw from his pocket – but felt only the prick of a knife he had wanted to throw away long ago but did not have the heart to. Oh well, the fruit knife would do just fine, Kim was already in deep crap as it was. The edge of the fruit knife gleamed in the sunlight, and Jon saw the dark axe stump – and wanted to kill it.

Kim found her senses and ran away from the scene at last, but Jon did not care – you did this to my girl, dead tree, you pay for this. He plunged the dagger with speed, grinding at the wood slowly but surely, until the animate deadwood growled and sank to the ground.

Jon did not know how he found his way back to the grass, but he eventually did, and saw Gordon alongside the clerics in bandaging Kim's wounds – and caressing her, the bastard, noticed Jon, his face burning hot.

The Dark Lord approached Jon, as if disappointed. "Good thing you didn't lose the way and your life. Where were you and what were you doing? If you wanted to save Kim… by the way, it was a good thing Gordon found her and brought her back."

"WHA? Gordon?" blurted Jon.

"Yep. Gordon said he found Kim fighting off some Axe Stumps and he singlehandedly fought them off before carrying Kim back. Well, this time no one managed to retrieve the gem, but for his courage and valour I shall give the prize to Gordon!"

Gordon beamed. Kim kissed him tenderly on the cheek. Jon slumped down, all the energy in his brain and body had been wasted for nothing, the scoundrel Gordon…

It was finally time to go. It was Jon's duty to pack up the picnic mats. Kim lingered behind for a moment with him.

"Hi Kim," said Jon grudgingly.

"I… just want to say 'thanks'," muttered Kim, and shuffled off. Jon's face heated up, but he smirked as he deduced that the same thing was happening to Kim's face.

Behind a tree, hanging comfortably upside-down on a tree, the Dark Lord nodded his head silently. He had heard what had been said in that area for the last minute. It was time to do some persuasion, even if someone didn't want to be persuaded.


	3. Range

**The Last Bandit**

**The Usual Disclaimers**

I do not own Maplestory. In fact I'm rather noob and this is my first fanfic! I just like Maple and created this bandit-bound rogue in the past (I've quit it, but bandits are still fun to write about!). Sorry if the chapters are too long or short, as I have said I'm really a fanfic newbie and please advise me!

Sorry for the long break, I'm not a very rabid fanficker, hehe.

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**Chapter 3: Range**

"WHAT?" But the Dark Lord's words were final. Jon had only 2 choices – obey his master or quit being a rogue. The second option hurt Jon – any jobless dweller of Victoria Island was considered an outcast. But – to return to the path of –

"Bandits are a great choice for those who have a keen sense of accuracy, and by that I do not refer to a great eyesight. I mean the instinct to really hurt the monster. The path of assassin has been over-used. Throwing stars are too tempting to use, when you compared it with that stub of a dagger. But what bandits lack in range – they have this." The Dark Lord picked up a glimmering dagger from the wall behind him, went to the punching bag just outside the boxing ring, and sunk his dagger with lightspeed – it was a smooth action, but Jon knew that exactly six blows hit the punching bag, which was now a puddle of sand filling the floor.

Savage Blow.

That was what he had first set off to do – before the distractions of friendship and a burning crush.

Those were not important anymore! What's important now, thought Jon in a surprisingly calm state of mind, is that I train.

When Gordon held his job advancement ceremony two weeks later, decked in his brand-new Stealer suit Kim had gotten him, Jon had just mastered Double Stab, and was thinking of how a Stealer would look on himself.

The new girl, who in her overlarge attire which seemed to have stars and moons imprinted all over it looked out of place in the Fusion Bar Jazz, said hi to Jon, the only person left in the bar, busy training his rapid stabbing. Jon, who had become increasingly antisocial over the past few weeks, especially after Gordon's ceremony, did not reply. Jon didn't suspect he had a new partner until when Phoebe joined him in the bandit class the next day, before the Dark Lord had even come.

"Say, aren't you supposed to be a magician or something? Those – robes – are not conventional for rogues to wear." Jon's voice was surly and nonchalant, as if he couldn't care for an answer.

"Well, I WAS a magician until I was lured by…" Phoebe reddened.

Jon did not pursue the matter – he had already walked to the punching bag and started his daily drill. His whole body was already saturated in perspiration by the time the Dark Lord drifted into the basement and gave Phoebe the usual "Bandits 101" drone.

Two conflicting echoes disturbed Phoebe's sleep, as they had for the past two months. The first was a shrill scream that belonged to a very low-pitched voice, juxtaposed against the growl of a monster that sounded hungry… the second, that happened before that, was a soft voice, the very same voice, which told her of a dream, a mission that had not been accomplished.

"Father! You were too slow… no matters. I shall complete the quest for you."

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This is a very short instalment to allow for the cliffhanger effect and also because I am VERY busy, sorry! Comments, anyone? Please keep on sending those reviews!


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